Bucket List and Other Dreams

It has happened quiet a few times since we have been spending our summers in Italy. We'll be in some public place and struck up a conversation with a strange couple. If they are about our age, when they find out we are from America, the mans eyes will glaze over as he says his dream is to travel the Route 66. The 1960's TV series must have really been popular in Italy. The last person that mentioned this dream, wanted to do it on a three wheeled Harley .  Most Italians cannot grasp how big the United States is so I don't bust their bubbles and mention that Route 66 is four thousand kilometers long. I was fifteen when that show was on the air. I don't remember that it gave me "itchy feet" at the time, but I do remember lusting for the Corvette. I never made the connection before, but maybe that show was the reason   why we convinced  our Mother to buy a Corvette. 

I did, however, get excited when I read Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley"  that came out a few years later. For those who never read it, Steinbeck decided to "discover" the America that he had been writing about. He bought a pickup truck and had a slide-in camper installed. He then, along with his wife's poodle Charlie,  embarked on a ten-thousand mile trip across the country. His book was listed as a non-fiction and made the best seller list. I loved the book. This love was not diminished a bit , when fifty years later a  unknown author attempted to duplicate Steinbeck's  trip. He wrote a book "Sorry Charley" in which He concluded that Steinbeck's book should have been listed as a fiction, as most of what he had written was fiction.  "Sorry Charlie" didn't make the best sellers list. 

I have often thought about trying to duplicate Steinbeck's trip and write my own stories. However, I have given up the 

idea. The biggest problem is that I would have to do it alone as my better half would have nothing to do with living in a camper. Quiet frankly, the trip just wouldn't be the same today. I would have to sleep with a Glock under my pillow.  I will have to be satisfied with re-reading some of the better parts of Steinbeck's book from time to time. Forgive me if my eyes glaze over for just a second when ever I see a camper with a guy and a dog pass by.